Best TFSA Accounts in Canada for 2026

Best TFSA Account Canada 2026: Ranking at a Glance

This table lists the 13 self-directed brokers that offer a TFSA, in score order. Scores are out of 5 and rounded to one decimal. Where two brokers share a rounded score, the order follows the unrounded score, then the name. Managed (robo) and savings options follow in their own sections because they are ranked or sorted on different measures.

Want to see what these prices mean for the way you invest? The calculator below works out the yearly cost at every broker for the Canadian and US trades you make, adding up commissions, options fees and account fees.

Master Comparison Table: 13 TFSA Brokers

Use the search box and column sorting to filter the table. Yearly costs come from our two scoring profiles for a $20,000 TFSA: buy-and-hold (one Canadian trade a month) and active (two Canadian and one US trade a month). Each cost is commissions plus any account fee that applies at that balance. “Not published” means the figure was not on the provider’s own pages when we checked.

Yearly costs use each broker’s standard published commission on a $2,000 order of 40 shares, plus any account fee that applies to a $20,000 TFSA. Optional USD account fees are covered in section 4.

The 13 Self-Directed TFSA Brokers Ranked

Each card shows the score, the bar out of 5, why the broker sits where it does, what a TFSA costs there, and the TFSA details that matter: US-dollar support, account fees and transfers. Sub-scores are out of 5 and come from our published rubric. Only brokers with a full WealthScale review get a review button.

Managed TFSA Options: Robo-Advisors Ranked

A robo-advisor builds a portfolio of ETFs for you, rebalances it and reinvests dividends for a yearly fee. We rank only robo-advisors that publish both their management fee and their fund costs in text we can verify. Four qualify, and all four offer a TFSA. Robo scores weigh fees 45%, account types 15%, portfolio choice 15%, minimum investment 10% and access to advice 15%.

Wealthsimple Managed Investing (4.2 / 5). It ranks first on portfolio choice (Classic, Summit, Income, a Private Market Fund and Automated Investing), a $1 starting point and access to advisors. Tax-loss harvesting is for Premium and Generation clients only, and it does not help inside a TFSA anyway, since TFSA gains are not taxed. The $109,000 figure above uses the 0.4% Premium fee, which applies once your total Wealthsimple assets reach $100,000. Read our Wealthsimple Managed Investing review.

Questwealth Portfolios (4.1 / 5). It is the cheapest ranked robo at every balance: 0.25% plus fund costs of up to 0.12% on standard portfolios (0.20% to 0.24% on its socially responsible portfolios). It loses points on advice, because client-facing advice is not described.

CI Direct Investing (3.7 / 5) and RBC InvestEase (3.4 / 5). CI Direct Investing scores full marks on advice, with access to planners, and covers the other institution’s transfer fee (up to $150) on transfers of $25,000 or more. Its fee is blended across all your CI accounts. RBC InvestEase offers six portfolios in Core and Responsible versions with Portfolio Advisors by phone or email, but only four account types (TFSA, FHSA, RRSP and non-registered).

Not ranked. BMO SmartFolio publishes an advisory fee of 0.4% to 0.7% without breakpoints or fund costs. Justwealth publishes its fee tiers only as an image; its minimum fee is $4.99 a month and its minimum account is $5,000 except for RESPs and FHSAs. We could not confirm that TD Automated Investing, Nest Wealth or Qtrade Guided Portfolios accept new clients. See the full best robo-advisors in Canada ranking for every account type.

The robo fee calculator below shows the yearly fee at each ranked robo-advisor for any balance you enter.

TFSA Savings Accounts and GIC Options

A TFSA can hold cash and GICs as well as investments. Interest earned inside a TFSA is not taxed, so a TFSA savings account or GIC suits money you may need within a few years. These lists are sorted by rate, not by score, and include only registered rates we verified on October 22, 2026. Rates can change at any time.

How the lists are built. Saven, Hubert, Outlook, Peoples Trust and Alterna say their TFSA savings rate is the same as their everyday rate. EQ Bank, Manulife and TD publish a separate TFSA savings rate, and at Manulife and TD it is lower than the everyday account (1.05% against 1.50%, and 0.300% against 0.450% on $10,000 or more). Every GIC provider listed says its TFSA rates match its regular GIC rates. Ties are ordered by the next rate (the 1-year rate for GICs, then the 2-year), then by name.

What we left out. EQ Bank publishes three different sets of GIC rates on three of its pages, so we do not list its TFSA GICs until it confirms one. Tangerine’s registered savings promotion appeared only in page metadata, with its terms shown as placeholders. Wealthsimple offers a savings version of its TFSA, but its pages give conflicting rates, so we do not show one. Oaken’s TFSA savings rate was not shown.

Locked money and room. A non-redeemable GIC cannot be cashed before maturity, so you cannot withdraw that money from your TFSA until it matures. When you do withdraw, the amount comes back as TFSA room only on January 1 of the next year. Compare everyday rates on our best high-interest savings accounts page, all terms on our best GIC rates page, and the trade-offs in GIC vs high-interest savings.

1. How We Ranked the Best TFSA Accounts

One score for every broker. Each broker that offers a TFSA gets the same overall score it carries on our best online brokers ranking and on every list in our compare online brokers section. The score is a weighted average of six factors, each marked out of 5 from the broker’s published pricing and account pages. We do not adjust it per page, so a broker cannot rank higher on one list because it pays us more.

Why the cost test uses a TFSA. The two cost profiles assume a $20,000 TFSA, so account-size fees that disappear at $20,000 do not count against a broker, and one that charges at every balance (Webull, $8.40 a year) does. Trades are $2,000 orders of 40 shares, and each profile counts commissions and account fees only.

Ties and updates. Scores show one decimal. Ties are broken by the unrounded score, then by name, which is why Questrade (4.325) sits above Desjardins (4.275), and Interactive Brokers (4.232) above Wealthsimple (4.225) and National Bank Direct Brokerage (4.175). We re-check prices when a provider changes them and update the page. The full rubric is on our broker rating methodology page, our rules on accuracy are in our editorial standards, and how the site is paid for is on how WealthScale makes money.

2. TFSA Costs for Four Investor Profiles

Account-size fees and commissions hit different investors in different ways. This table works out the yearly cost of a TFSA at each broker for four hypothetical investors, using each broker’s published prices on October 22, 2026.

The active profile is two Canadian and one US trade a month. Each cost is commissions plus any account fee that applies at that balance.

Assumptions. Every trade is a $2,000 order of 40 shares. The investor is over 30, has been a client for more than a year, holds no other account or banking package at the firm and makes no pre-authorized contributions. Optional USD account fees (Wealthsimple’s $10 a month plus tax on Core and Qtrade’s US$15 a quarter) are not included; section 4 covers them.

The starter TFSA. At $7,000, small-account fees matter more than commissions. CIBC costs $183.40: its $100 fee for balances of $10,000 or less plus 12 trades at $6.95 ($83.40). National Bank charges its $100 account fee unless you are 30 or younger. TD’s $25-a-quarter fee does not apply here, because one trade a month means three commission trades each quarter.

The US-focused TFSA. Commissions decide this profile. Six brokers cost $0.00 for 12 US trades a year: Questrade, Desjardins, Wealthsimple, National Bank, Qtrade and BMO. Webull also charges $0 commission but adds its $8.40 account fee. Interactive Brokers costs $12.00 (12 x US$1) and moomoo $23.88 (12 x US$1.99), while CIBC costs $83.40 (12 x $6.95), RBC $119.40 (12 x $9.95), and Scotia iTRADE and TD $119.88 each (12 x $9.99). Section 4 shows which TFSAs can hold US dollars and what that costs.

What the table leaves out. It does not count fund fees (MERs) on ETFs you buy, transfer fees, or the value of interest on cash. Interactive Brokers pays interest on CAD cash above CAD 13,000 (1.675%, with the full rate only above USD 100,000 of net assets), while Questrade, National Bank Direct Brokerage, CIBC and Qtrade pay 0%. Contributions left as cash there earn nothing, even though they have used your room.

3. Self-Directed vs Managed vs Savings TFSA

A TFSA is a tax shelter, not an investment. The same $7,000 of 2026 room can hold shares you pick, a portfolio a robo-advisor runs, or a savings account or GIC. Choosing the type comes before choosing the provider.

Which is the best TFSA investment platform for you?

Self-directed costs least if you stay disciplined. At seven of the 13 brokers any stock or ETF trade costs $0 in commissions, and CIBC, RBC, Scotia iTRADE and TD each offer a list of $0 ETFs. You still pay the fund’s own management expense ratio, which is built into the price of the ETF and is the same wherever you buy it. You also carry the work: choosing an asset mix, rebalancing and not selling in a panic.

A robo-advisor costs a fee for the discipline. On $50,000 the gap between Questwealth ($185) and CI Direct Investing ($415) is $230 a year. In exchange, the robo picks the mix, rebalances and reinvests. That can be worth it if you know you would otherwise leave cash idle or trade on headlines.

You can mix all three. You may hold more than one TFSA, at more than one provider, as long as your total contributions stay inside one combined room limit. Wealthsimple offers self-directed, managed and savings TFSAs in one app; Questrade pairs its self-directed TFSA with Questwealth Portfolios; RBC pairs Direct Investing with RBC InvestEase. Read our best investing apps ranking if the app matters most to you, or our Wealthsimple vs Questrade comparison for two $0-commission brokers side by side.

4. USD TFSA: Holding US Dollars and US Stocks

Which TFSAs hold US dollars. Some brokers let a TFSA hold a US-dollar balance next to its Canadian dollars. Questrade, Desjardins Online Brokerage, National Bank Direct Brokerage, moomoo and TD Easy Trade state it with no USD fee, while Wealthsimple and Qtrade charge an account fee for it. The table shows what each broker states, along with its commission on a US stock trade.

The yearly cost of the USD side. Wealthsimple’s Core USD account costs $120 a year plus tax ($10 x 12). Qtrade’s costs US$60 a year (US$15 x 4) unless you reach Investor Plus. To add a USD account fee to your commissions and fund costs for a full yearly total, use our investment fee calculator.

US dividends lose 15% in a TFSA. The Canada-US tax treaty caps US tax on dividends at 15% when your broker has a Form W-8BEN on file (30% without it). The treaty’s retirement-account exemption does not cover a TFSA, so the 15% is withheld and cannot be claimed back as a foreign tax credit. This example is hypothetical: $1,000 of US dividends paid into a TFSA loses $150 ($1,000 x 15%). In an RRSP the same dividends from directly held US-listed shares lose $0, so US dividend payers lose less in an RRSP account.

US commissions and the US-stock ranking. Questrade, Desjardins, Wealthsimple, National Bank, Qtrade, BMO and Webull charge $0 on US stock and ETF trades. Interactive Brokers charges USD 0.005 a share with a US$1 minimum and moomoo US$0.0099 a share with a US$1.99 minimum, while CIBC charges $6.95, RBC $9.95, and Scotia iTRADE and TD $9.99 a trade. Our US stocks in a TFSA page covers withholding in detail. On our best TFSA accounts for US stocks list, which weights US investing at 40%, Desjardins Online Brokerage and Questrade lead at 4.6 / 5.

5. TFSA Account Fees: Admin, Inactivity and Transfer Fees

Commissions are only part of the cost. Several brokers charge a yearly or quarterly fee on small accounts, and almost all charge to move a TFSA out. These fees are easy to miss because many are waived above a balance, under an age, or when you hold a registered account. The table shows how each one applies to a TFSA.

Transfer-out fees are the big one. Ten of the 13 brokers publish a transfer-out fee, and eight of them charge $150. Wealthsimple charges $0 and moomoo $75. Many receiving brokers will cover the fee: Questrade up to $150 per account, RBC up to $200 on $15,000 or more, Wealthsimple up to $150 per account on $25,000 or more, and Qtrade up to $150 per client on $15,000 or more under its Fall Offer 2026.

Other fees worth knowing. Qtrade charges $100 to close an account in its first year. Wealthsimple charges $20 for a paper statement and $45 for a trade placed by phone, which is waived for its Active Traders. Disnat’s representative-placed trades carry a $45 minimum.

Government charges. The government charges nothing to open or hold a TFSA. The only government charges are penalty taxes: 1% a month on an over-contribution and 50% of the value of a non-qualified or prohibited investment, both covered in sections 6 and 7.

6. TFSA Rules Recap for 2026: Limit, Room and Withdrawals

The 2026 limit. The TFSA dollar limit for 2026 is $7,000, the same as in 2024 and 2025. The limit is indexed to inflation and rounded to the nearest $500. Canada Revenue Agency has not yet published the 2027 limit, so treat any figure you see for 2027 as an estimate.

Total room since 2009. If you were 18 or older and resident in Canada every year since 2009 and never contributed, your total room in 2026 is $109,000, the sum of every annual limit below. Room starts in the year you turn 18. In provinces where the age of majority is 19 (British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon), you open the account at 19, but the room from the year you turned 18 carries over.

How room is worked out. Your room for a year is the current year’s limit, plus unused room from earlier years, plus anything you withdrew in the previous year, minus what you contribute this year. Withdrawals come back as room on January 1 of the following year, not right away. Newcomers start building room on the day they become resident, with the full limit for that year and no room for earlier years.

Over-contributions. Any excess is taxed at 1% a month on the highest excess in each month it stays in the account. Unlike the RRSP, there is no $2,000 cushion. Remove the excess as soon as you notice it, then file the TFSA Return and pay by June 30 of the following year. Our TFSA contribution limit page shows the year-by-year detail, and our TFSA withdrawal rules page covers timing.

Enter your birth year, the year you became a resident and your past contributions and withdrawals, and the calculator below shows your TFSA room now and on January 1.

For a longer walk-through of room by scenario, see the TFSA contribution room calculator page, and for the whole account, our TFSA guide.

7. What You Can Hold in a TFSA

Qualified investments. A TFSA can hold cash, GICs and other deposits; most securities listed on a designated stock exchange, including shares, warrants, options, ETF units and REIT units; mutual funds and segregated funds; Canada and provincial savings bonds; debt of listed corporations; investment-grade debt; and insured mortgages. The list is generally the same as for an RRSP.

Getting the 50% tax back. The 50% tax on a non-qualified or prohibited investment may be refunded if you dispose of it, or it stops being non-qualified, before the end of the calendar year after the year it was taxed. There is no refund if you knew, or should have known, that it was not allowed. The 100% advantage tax is never refunded.

Trading too often. Canada Revenue Agency says that a TFSA holder who invests with the frequency and experience of a professional trader may have the income taxed as business income. It gives no fixed number of trades. A $0-commission broker makes frequent trading cheap, but it does not change this rule.

Debit balances and margin. A TFSA is not a margin account, and a negative cash balance in a registered account is expensive: Questrade charges CAD prime + 8.10%, Webull prime + 7.5% and National Bank Direct Brokerage 21.00% on registered debit balances. Wealthsimple lets a TFSA be linked to a margin account to add buying power. Read the terms before you link, because a margin call in the other account can force sales.

8. Safety: CIPF, CDIC and Provincial Deposit Insurance

Investments at a broker: CIPF. All 13 brokers on this list are members of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF), directly or through the dealer that holds client accounts. CIPF covers cash and securities that go missing if a member firm fails, up to $1,000,000 for all general accounts combined, a group that includes cash, margin, TFSA and FHSA accounts. RRSPs, RRIFs and LIFs have a separate $1,000,000 limit. CIPF does not cover a fall in market prices, unsuitable advice, the failure of a company you invested in, or crypto assets.

Who regulates the brokers. The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) oversees all investment dealers in Canada, and every CIPF member firm is a CIRO member. Interactive Brokers, Wealthsimple, moomoo, Webull, Qtrade, RBC, BMO, Scotia and Desjardins state their CIRO membership on their own pages; for the others it follows from their CIPF membership.

A worked limit. This example is hypothetical. You hold $150,000 of TFSA GICs at one CDIC member bank. Only $100,000 is insured in the TFSA category, so $50,000 is uninsured ($150,000 – $100,000). Splitting the money across two CDIC members brings each holding under the limit. Your non-registered deposits and RRSP deposits at the same bank are insured separately, each up to $100,000.

Robo-advisors and savings at a dealer. A managed TFSA is held by an investment dealer, so CIPF rules, not CDIC rules, apply to it. The same is true of some savings products sold by dealers. Wealthsimple’s non-registered savings account, for example, is CIPF-covered, not CDIC-insured. Check which protection applies to the exact product before you move a large amount.

9. Where to Open a TFSA: How to Choose

The best TFSA account for you depends on how you invest, not just on the top score. These six steps use the tools on this page.

1. Pick the type. Decide whether this TFSA will hold investments you choose, a managed portfolio, or savings and GICs. Money you need within a few years usually belongs in savings or GICs.
2. Count your trades. Estimate how many Canadian and US trades you will make a year, then enter them in the cost calculator near the top of this page.
3. Decide whether you need US dollars. If you will hold US shares, check whether the TFSA can hold US dollars and whether a monthly or quarterly USD account fee applies (section 4).
4. Check fees at your balance. Under $10,000, $15,000 or $20,000, some brokers charge $100 a year. Use the fee table in section 5.
5. Check the transfer terms. If you are moving an existing TFSA, see what your old broker charges to transfer out and whether the new one will cover it.
6. Check protection and the app. Confirm CIPF membership for investments or CDIC (or provincial) insurance for deposits, then try the app or website before you fund it.

Beginners. If this is your first investing account, our best brokers for beginners list weights fractional shares, a mobile app and no minimum more heavily, and our how to invest in Canada guide explains the first steps. Our commission-free brokers list explains what “free” still costs.

10. How to Transfer a TFSA to a New Provider

Always use a direct transfer. Open the new TFSA first, then ask the new provider to transfer the account from the old one. A direct transfer between your own TFSAs has no effect on your contribution room. Please do not withdraw the money and deposit it yourself: the deposit counts as a new contribution, and the withdrawal is added back only on January 1 of the next year.

What a do-it-yourself switch can cost. This example is hypothetical. You have $7,000 of room left in 2026. In March you withdraw your whole $20,000 TFSA and in April you deposit it at a new broker. The deposit uses $20,000 of room, so you are $13,000 over ($20,000 – $7,000). The tax is $130 a month ($13,000 x 1%), or $1,170 from April to December ($130 x 9), plus the work of filing a TFSA Return.

In kind or in cash. You can usually move holdings as they are (in kind) or have them sold and move the cash. Moving in kind avoids selling and buying again, which matters at brokers that charge commissions. Fractional shares are an exception at Wealthsimple: they cannot be transferred to another institution, so they must be sold first.

Fees, partial transfers and rebates. Partial transfers cost $25 per security at Disnat and $50 at moomoo and Webull, so moving everything at once is often cheaper. Section 5 lists which receiving brokers cover the exit fee; among robo-advisors, CI Direct Investing covers up to $150 on transfers of $25,000 or more and RBC InvestEase up to $200 on $15,000 or more. Keep the old statement that shows the fee, because some rebates need proof.

GICs and timing. A non-redeemable GIC cannot be cashed before it matures, so plan a cash transfer for its maturity date. Our guide to transferring a TFSA, RRSP or investment account covers forms, timing and what to check after the move.

What You Need and What You Get

8 TFSA Account Strategies That Cut Costs

Illustrative Example: Moving a $30,000 TFSA

Meet the Experts Behind WealthScale

Sharad Gondaliya, CPAWriter and tax reviewerCPA Ontario No. 61040184

Sharad is a CPA Ontario member (No. 61040184) and a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Washington and Montana, with more than 15 years in accounting and tax, a Diploma in Banking and Finance and a Certificate in Small Business Finance. He checks WealthScale content against primary sources. WealthScale is independent of his firm, Gondaliya CPA Professional Corporation, and provides general information only, not personal financial, investment, tax or legal advice.

• Chartered Professional Accountant, CPA Ontario
• Certified Public Accountant, Washington (No. 57629) and Montana (No. PAC-CPAP-LIC-033176)
• Writing on tax and registered accounts since 2021
• Reader’s Choice Award 2025 Winner, Best Accountant (Toronto)

Read Sharad’s profile and verify his credentials

Neha Gupta, CFAFinancial ReviewerCFA charterholder

Neha Gupta is a CFA charterholder based in Winnipeg who has worked in financial markets since December 2005. She has published more than 2,600 investment articles and is Head of Operations and Finance at Whiteland Real Estate. She reviews WealthScale’s investing pages for accuracy.

• CFA charter, CFA Institute (awarded 2023)
• Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration (Finance), 2008
• In financial markets since December 2005
• More than 2,600 published investment articles

Read Neha’s profile and verify her credentials